A compelling offer is so much more than a description of what you sell. A product or service offer that becomes irresistible to your potential buyers ultimately solves a problem the consumer is experiencing. People do not buy good products or services anymore, they buy solutions to their problems.
Creating a compelling offer is critical in the overall sustainability and scalability of your small business. Your value proposition shows how your products or services solve a problem for the consumer. A well-crafted offer will help your customers understand why they should choose your products and services over your competitors’ offers.
Before you can create a compelling offer, you should understand what you sell, why you sell it and who your buyers are. At Jump Start Business Builders we know how important it is to have an offer that sells. We teach our clients how to create their offer through a simple three step process. This allows our small business clients to reach their target market and sell their products and services.
How to Create a Compelling Offer! Listen to the episode here.
Have Confidence In Your Mission, Vision and CORE Values
Having clarity on your mission, vision and CORE values is the most important first step for every small business to take before investing time or finances into a new product or service. So many skip this step and this is the biggest mistake small businesses make. Ultimately your mission, vision and CORE values serve as a filter for every business decision you will make in your small business. Without a business plan, or at least an effective executive summary, you will likely make costly mistakes.
The mission, vision and CORE values of a company should clearly communicate the following:
- Why you do what you do. (how you impact buyers)
- How you do it. (what you sell or offer)
- Who you do it for. (the target customer)
- What you believe. (3-5 values your business lives by)
- How it transforms your customers’ lives. (what the customer experiences as a result of using your products and services)
Investing in a new product or service can be costly. When you are clear on this information, you have a sense of direction in your business and creating a compelling offer is simplified. It will also serve as the foundation for your marketing and sales strategy, helping you connect with your buyers.
Step 1: Identify What You Sell
Your products and services are the solution that solves your customers problems or alleviates their pain points and transforms their life for the better. So, the big question is, what do you sell?
Services and products must be profitable, in demand and of high quality. Especially during times of economic disruption or recession, consumers may reduce extra spending, but they will continue spending money when it comes to solving their problems.
“The success of your services and products are the lifeblood of your business.
If you have nothing to sell you do not have a business.” – Jump Start Business Builder
In regards to your products and services complete a profitability analysis by answering following questions:
- Describe the product or service you sell or want to sell.
- How much revenue have you (or will you) generated on this product or service this year?
- How much did it cost (or will it cost) to create this product or service? Include payroll costs.
- List the resources or supplies necessary to maintain this product or service?
Identify the most profitable products and services before attempting to optimize and launch your services to the market.
Step 2: Optimize Your Products and Services
Optimizing your offer involves making strategic improvements to your products or services to meet the buyers needs and increase profitability. Ultimately this is where you really start impacting your customers and driving business growth at the same time.
At Jump Start Business Builders we use a 3-Tier strategy to help our clients target buyers with three different price points for essentially the same service or product. Each tier offers the same service or product but with a differing level of value offered.
Tier 1: Free or Entry Level
The free or entry level offer is a great way to introduce your products and services to a potential buyer. This level can also serve as a lead generation tool. Generating the lead will allow you to nurture the leads towards a tier 2 or tier 3 buyer through email marketing or other marketing channels.
Tier 2: Best Value
Think of tier 2 as “the best bang for your buck” targeting customers who are price sensitive but have an appreciation and need for the offer. This is the most affordable option for a customer and is also the most profitable option offered.
Tier 3: High Ticket Offer
The high ticket offer often serves less customers but at a higher price point. I like to think of these customers that love a “done for you” option. They are willing to pay more money for a higher level of value and transformation. There is generally extra overhead costs associated in this offer that should be accounted for as you create the third tier.
The goal in the optimization step is to identify how you can make your product or service more valuable and attractive to your customer, while increasing profit margins without sacrificing the service and product quality.
Step 3: Create a Profitable Launch Strategy
Once you identify what you sell and discover buyer levels to make purchasing easier you will need a plan to launch your offer to the world. Your launch plan is a roadmap designed to take your services and products to the target market for purchase. Breaking down your launch strategy into three stages will set you up for success.
Pre-Launch
- Conduct research
- Write sales copy
- Create a marketing plan
Launch
- Make products and services available
- Conduct daily, weekly and monthly analytics
- Identify products and services that sell the most
Post-Launch
- Conduct an after action review
- Identify areas of improvement needed
- Make necessary adjustments to the product or service offer
The most important thing to remember as you create your compelling offer is that every launch is not a million dollar launch. I will never forget when Brendan Buchard, New York Times Best Selling Author and High Performance Coach noted that he had on the upwards end of 20+ launches resulting in millions of dollars, but he had hundreds of launches that sold nothing.
Discovering what works and what does not is critical. Making the changes despite your emotions or time invested up to this point is even more critical. Keep your head in the game and keep working on your offers until it sticks.
Learn to Love Trial and Error
Creating your product and service offers is truly an art and a science. Understanding your customers needs, completing a competitor analysis, defining your unique value proposition are central to creating a unique offer that solves problems and transforms your customers life. Investing the time into testing, analyzing, validating, and refining your offer will be the game changer. Don’t forget to always gather customer feedback. Your products and services exist to serve them to begin with. Their feedback will help you make the impact you desire to make through your small business.
